Grooming elite stars

Back in December 2011, Victoria Azarenka practised for three weeks at the Elite Tennis Academy of Dubai (formerly Equelite Juan Carlos Ferrero Tennis Academy of Dubai) for her pre-season training for the Australian Open, a tournament which she went on to win and become the world number 1. She was joined by three men's players, Dmitri Tursunov (former ATP Top 20), James Ward (UK number 2 after Andy Murray) and Sergio Bubka Jr. "It was a wonderful experience for a number of our juniors to hit with Victoria and spend time with her. She is a wonderful role model and our kids certainly learned a lot watching her practise," Luis Miguel Reis, the academy founder and director, told XPRESS. Elite have their two main training centres at Atlantis, The Palm Jumeirah and at the Emirates Golf Club. While the academy no longer co-brands with former world number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero's Academy in Spain they still maintain an excellent exclusive agency agreement with one another. "We are a non-profit academy and also offer scholarships to promising players in the competition squad. We charge as little as Dh1,125 for a 15-week programme. Elite works with players of all ages and levels starting at grass-roots level; the ideal age for a child to get involved in the sport is four years of age," Reis said. "Elite follows the very successful Spanish model for developing players. Our teaching methods and programmes are very similar to the academy in Spain as is the work ethic of our very dedicated staff. We love tennis and we love to teach tennis; for us it is more than a job, it is a passion. Our players are not one-dimensional as we take into consideration a player's strengths and weaknesses. We look at the physique, speed, strength and endurance of a player. "We look at the intelligence of a player, shot selection and mental strength from an early age and based on this data we teach him or her to play the type of game which will help them to be more competitive, whether the style be that of an aggressive baseliner, an all-rounder, serve-and-volleyer or any other style. We have to let the player do what is natural to him or her and not mess around with what I like to call their tennis DNA. Our coaching staff don't go on the tennis court to just hit balls, we follow a progression system and we want to see a significant improvement, otherwise we are not satisfied," Reis added.